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| Thursday, Mar 15, 2007
Plea to restrain colleges charging excessive fees
`Three private medical colleges are charging fees beyond what is stipulated by panel'
Chennai: A parents' association has moved the Madras High Court
to restrain three private medical colleges in Tamil Nadu from
collecting fees in excess of the structure stipulated by the
statutory committee for fees in self-financing professional
colleges.
Justice V. Ramasubramanian, before whom the matter came up for
admission on Wednesday, ordered notices to the Government and
posted the matter for March 20 for further hearing. The colleges
are: PSG Institute of Medical Science and Research; Chettinad
Hospital and Research Institute; and Sri Mookambiga Institute
of Medical Sciences.
While the Permanent Committee for Fees in Self- Financing Professional
Colleges fixed Rs. 1.3 lakh as annual fee, a single judge of
the court, entertaining petitions against the committee's fee
structure, passed an interim order permitting them to collect
Rs. 4 lakh from students admitted under Government quota.
N.G.R. Prasad, counsel for the association, argued that while
the prospectus issued by the colleges stated that Rs. 1.3 lakh
would be the tuition fee, prior to counselling students and
parents were informed that the High Court had permitted them
to collect Rs. 4 lakh, subject to the result of their writ petition.
He said the interim order had been passed without hearing the
students' version.
In the petition, the Parents Association of Students Studying
Under Government Quota in Self-Financing Private Medical Colleges
of Tamil Nadu said parents had already been forced to pay Rs.
4 lakh, and expressed an apprehension that this year too they
might be asked to pay another Rs. 4 lakh. It said such demands
would ruin many middle class families, and added that families
would be forced to sell properties and jewellery to meet the
commitment.
Seeking to curb profiteering by these medical colleges, the
petition said: "The private self-financing institutions
are using litigation as a method to collect the fees desired
by them."
Pointing out that the Permanent Committee, which had declined
to revise the fee structure, was yet to come out with fee details
for the coming academic year, it said already students had paid
Rs. 2.7 lakh over and above the recommendations of the Committee.
It prayed for a direction to the Permanent Committee to fix
the fees to be charged by these three medical colleges within
a time frame and, until then, forbear the colleges from collecting
fees beyond the one fixed by the statutory committee.
Courtesy: The Hindu
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